Monday afternoon and time is a draggin. Prospects for going home at the end of the week are making us edgy to get out of here. We have a very short stay really (less than 2 weeks) so we're looking to pack as much eating, drinking, being merry as well as relaxing into that short time.
We (somewhat belatedly) saw "The Ring" here on the weekend and I have to admit I haven't been so scared since all work and no play made Jack a dull boy in "The Shining"! "Our" Naomi Watts was pretty slick too we thought. We had dinner at a fancy Thai restaurant at the top of the Living Mall called "Bird". We sat beneath a fake tree, which had real birds in little cages chirping away all evening. It was a delicious meal....rivaling the best Thai we have eaten. We bought a book called 'Taipei's top 100 international restaurants', which is in both Mandarin and English. We have already picked out a few must visit places and were delighted to see a number of restaurants we have visited got a mention; we thought they were great, the book thought they were just average, so we can't wait to visit the 'good' ones!
A ride home at night with Saturday party crowds out and about was another special experience (!) We stopped at a park behind the fine arts museum and went to a spot just half way in that we have found on the way home. Why? We watch planes come in to land! They fly into the domestic airport just beyond this park and fly straight above us here. If you lean back as they go overhead, it's great fun. Oh well, small things........!

I've been so slack lately but I've been pretty tired and I've had a bit of marking to do too; the joys of the end of term. This semester has gone so quickly in some ways and yet these last few weeks have slowed right down.
Yesterday I went to a "French conversation" get-together at the home of the Middle School French teacher, along with a mixed group of francophones: there are quite a few French-speakers at the school. We indulged in some wine, cheese and gossip (all French/ in French) and I had quite a good time. It was a bit frightening as there are some native speakers and some others who are very adept; my French is very rusty but I was pleased to be able to follow what was going on - even if my own efforts were a bit pedestrian.
Today I had coffee after school with one of the women I lunched with at work last year, Pat. Her daughter is in grade 3 and I ran into her last week dropping off the daughter at school. We arranged to meet and had a good chat. She's a lovely person and I enjoyed catching up with her.
This week saw the announcement of some significant news by the guy with whom I work very closely (Chris Hall) : he and his wife are having a baby in June. It may mean that he/they won't be back next year, although it hasn't been decided yet. It would be a bummer for me as he's fantastic to work with and we get on very well. Also, our great "team leader",Kara, is going to the job fair so she may be leaving too. Hopefully Cathy Funk will hire comparable replacements, if it comes to that.
David's done his reports but mine can't be finalised till I mark one last project that the kids hand in on Monday. Our grades aren't due till Thursday, but I'll do some preliminary maths this weekend to make the final calculations a bit easier once I get their projects marked. The reporting system is a bit primitive over here - no class rankings/average, exam marks/average/rankings, cumulative rankings - just a grade based on class work.
We put up our xmas tree tonight - the fibre optic model from B&Q. It's a beauty!! We no longer rely on the tv for visual stimulation - we just sit mesmerised as the tree twirls on its base, brilliant colours glowing and pulsing through a broad spectrum.
No great plans for the weekend - will see what takes our fancy once we get there!
Eight sleeps to go!

We had a great weekend, exploring the north coast highway no. 2 which eventually finds its way out of the city sprawl and hits the coast. We saw amazing volcanic extrusions and arches to walk through, coastal walks and stone bridges linking rocky little islands just off the coast, which you could walk across. It was the first truly pretty area of scenery that we'd seen. We traveled about 100 km, which isn't much in Aussie terms, but a fair hike on a little buzzing scooter!!

We plan to investigate this highway further.....one side of the road is a beautiful rocky coast with smashing (small!) waves, with mountains rising straight from the road on the other side...stay tuned.

We've got really slack with the site here, but Cassy won't write anything as she says she's lost all impetus. We're very much looking forward to coming home as you can probably guess!

We had a good thanksgiving party with Chad and Cathy on Thursday- nice food and fun company. David especially enjoyed his "evening"/morning. He and a few of the other stayers went downtown and extended their fun. I was a piker and came home at about 10pm (we started at 2pm). We bought some good Aussie wine (didn't trust the cheap muck we brought over to be of a satisfactory standard - not that they're real wine buffs or anything, but we didn't want to bring Aussie wine into disrepute) and I certainly enjoyed my share... It was good quality - no hangover

Friday, David "rested" and we listened to the cricket and read our books. The cricket is almost surreal at the moment. What's next? Beat them in 2 days?
On Saturday we received some terribly sad news, which, though we were expecting, cast a great pall over us which is still there now. Our friends and family know what this is, so enough said in this open forum.
Saturday we needed to distract ourselves so we went to the movies and saw "One Hour Photo" with Robin Williams - whom we don't really like - but it was an interesting look at a disturbed personality (who, ironically enough, was correct in his estimation of the situation, but weird in his response to it).
Sunday we didn't feel up to much so listened to the cricket till lunch, then took off on Blackie to check out the Matisse exhibition down near the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Well, we checked out the queue...and thought we might come back another day - earlier is better if you want to beat the crowds here. The show's on till mid-Febrary so we should be able to catch it sometime before it ends.

We'll have more than a thought about our friends in Newcastle tomorrow...it's a day we wish we could share.

we bought a fantastic Christmas tree on Saturday! It has these amazing fibre optic ends on all the "branches" which produce this mesmerizing light show. It sounds horrendously kitsch, but it actually looks really great.
We saw "Knockaround Boys" at the pictures and were really impressed with Vin Diesel......he really stole the movie. We battled the second weekend of Harry Potter crowds and even though it's been on here for 2 weeks, the crowds keep coming. The scooter braved the streets again and I'm realising that I'd better remember how to drive legally when I get back on the "big bike" at home.
We borrowed and watched all 4 "Alien" movies on DVD from some friends here, and thoroughly enjoyed them as well.
You probably get the theme of the weekend.....pretty lazy!
back to work now, I'd better go and do some!

David is just about had it at this stage - hope he makes it till tomorrow!! This course is even worse than the last one, so I pity him! We've been having "hot dates"(!!) each afternoon before his course starts; we go to a cafe and have coffee and talk. The people I work with are amazed that we want to spend so much time together! I miss him when he's at his course!
We think we'll go to the movies this weekend, as there's one starting that sounds good. I think it's called "Knockaround Boys" or something like that. City slickers meet country bumpkins - with a bit of pisstake involved- should be interesting.
I finished marking the (80) speeches on genetics today so my brain has slightly imploded from a lethal mixture of boredom and intense concentration!! Oh well, I used to have to do much worse.......... I've been spoiled a little here!
Speaking of being spoiled, we've been enjoying watching 2 episodes of "Friends" each evening (David's missed them lately). It's great just to watch a TV show without having to sit through a movie. The Discovery channel is not too bad either - as long as we avoid the (nightmare-inducing) wild- animals- killing- each- other shows!!! The travelogues are sometimes fascinating.
Catching a ride each morning on a scooter has also spoiled me! It's meant scouring the wardrobe for trousers to wear each day but it's saved my feet/heels as they adjust to "winter" shoes after summer sandals.
I went to the library today in preparation for thanksgiving - I plan to do some serious reading!! We've been invited again to Chad and Cathy's place for dinner, along with a whole group of other (nice) people, so we're really looking forward to that. Next week we only work Mon, Tues, Wed then have Thurs, Fri off!! Our Thanksgiving show is on Thursday and we plan to go up Yangming Shan as well sometime over the break, if it's not raining. (Cassy on Thursday)

Finished! Another installment of study finished. This one was especially tedious. Two weeks of research methodology and statistics with one of the most boring people on earth. At least it reminded me how NOT to teach my kids. Looking forward to a weekend of relaxation and no academic thought whatsoever.
On a totally different topic, if anyone wants some superb professional photography done (and lives near Newcastle, Australia!) I strongly recommend contacting my sister Sue. Her business, "Fotojenik", is generating some genuinely exciting photos. All bias aside, I've been blown away by some of the fantastic shots she is taking. For any work at all, big or small, why not give her a ring on (02) 4961 3362. Sue is great with kids and adults alike....... keep her in mind.
Anyway after that brief advert, I'll sign off. (David)

Sunday night again and ready for another big week. We had a pretty quiet weekend with no big trips etc, as we were both pretty tired from a big week.
Saturday was spent watching a movie or two and generally bumming around before we went "downtown" to find "Mr. Fish" which we had seen advertised in the 'Taipei Times' one of he Eng language newspapers here.
This might not seem very exciting, but it was for us. We rang Carl up and he, Hiroko and the boys joined us as we traveled into town on the train, changed trains and emerged with a funny little map. After a couple of false starts we eventually found the shop and enjoyed a couple of pieces of battered fish with chips! This does not exist anywhere else in Taipei!!
The owner is a Canadian /Chinese who originally wanted to set up shop in Shanghai, before realizing 1/2 his profit would go to the gangs of Triads.....anyway, we're pleased he chose Taipei.
Home again to watch the Aussies live as they went down narrowly to the Pommies in the rugby....good with English commentary.

Sunday was really lazy...little trip out for lunch at a nice coffee shop and a trip on the scooter to have a wander down a market alley or two.......we were pleased to look at some nice jade jewelry, yet less pleased to see live chickens awaiting their fate, with one of their' brothers getting plucked beside them!

I have another week of my course to run; it's called "Research and Evaluation Methodology" so you can imagine how rivetting that is after a full day at work! Oh well, just 5 more nights. We can get flights to Cairns now but are still waitlisted on early internal flights from Cairns to Newcastle. At least we'll be somewhere in Australia!

We had some fun last weekend and added to our dvd collection with 2 beauties and one pretty good one. On Sunday we went on the scooter downtown to the fnac centre near Ikea - just to browse through their dvds and books. We checked out the map and "Dave the legend" was easily able to negotiate the crazy Sunday drivers ( who add a whole new dimension to that saying) and parked with impunity opposite the Asiaworld Centre. Our timing was as good as ever so we had to build our energy to search the racks by eating first at "Aubergine"- our "favorite" Japanese style curry place. Yum!! Salad, soup, curry, rice and coffee for less than 500 NT($25) for the 2 of us! All delicious and served in a clean, stylish (for Taipei!!) restaurant.

Ready for action, we attacked the dvd specials but ... there were none worth buying! We had fun just looking at some beautiful books - cats, design and decorating, karate, architecture, fashion - and satisfied our need for beauty without having actually to buy them! Because of our fruitless search, on the way home we stopped off at the night markets, just in case they had any new bargains. Luckily for us, we found "Monster's Ball" ( the one that Halle Berry won an oscar for and which is very good) and "Ali" (the new one with Will Smith in the lead role)

On Saturday, we caught the MRT down to the Living Mall to go to the movies. We didn't ride down as David was a bit spaced from lack of sleep: he'd been on the grade 3 sleepover the night before. Needless to say, was not impressed with spending his Friday night at school but had no choice. Anyway, we saw "City by the Sea" - the new Robert de Niro one- and enjoyed seeing that veteran strut his stuff with Frances Mc Dormand ( Fargo) in it too. Interesting look at troubled family life played out against the thematically significant backdrops of intimate apartment scenes in Manhattan and derelict buildings on the water's edge at Longbeach.

Not content with going home the way we came (is it a "boy" thing??), we caught the free bus from the Living Mall, ostensibly to go back to Sun Yat Sen station and then home. But on the bus, David said, "Hey why don't we keep going and see where this bus goes?" I was not too sure of the merits of this plan (no English anywhere on the bus to indicate its destination) but, what the heck, we could always find the MRT (it's hard to miss!) Further along, everyone got off the bus at SOGO ( a big department store ) so we did too. We knew where we were ( near Chungshiao Fuhsing mrt) so we got home ok AND found a funny dvd at the Blockbuster near there, called "Clerks" that we'd seen a while back.

It's friday night now and I've just got home from my course.....it's mind numbingly boring but it's half way over now. Looking forward to the weekend............we'll think about that tomorrow.

We've just started our web page to see how we go.
Hopefully, this will be an interesting way for people to catch up with what we are doing.